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Tesla is sitting on $200M worth of Cybertruck inventory

electrek.co

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Re: Tesla is sitting on $200M worth of Cybertruck inventory

#21

Post by Neywiny »

acdha wrote: post #17
Neywiny wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. From the looks of it as someone who doesn't follow the automotive space too closely: Tesla unveiled it before any/most companies mentioned the idea, and shipped after most/all others had already. So, they got people riled up to buy an electric pickup, then sent them all to the competitors. (And then shipped a pile of recalled garbage)

Also the price went up by over 50%, and the initial reports of issues with car washes or rain along with the resale penalty were not exactly what buyers want to hear when they’re looking at a six figure vehicle purchase.

I like the look on people's faces when I tell them the fleet is rusting. "But it's stainless steel" they say. Still rusts if you try hard enough. It's hard to believe I thought I might want one all those years ago...

Re: Tesla is sitting on $200M worth of Cybertruck inventory

#22

Post by Nathanba »

TheAlchemist wrote: post #3
duxup wrote: post #2

Is there a "normal" amount of inventory to sit on? >Used Cybertruck prices are down 55% year over year It's wild to me folks lined up to buy this thing ... like I can understand enthusiasm for new things and all that but that's a big hit there. And even I think the prices are still high for the used ones in my area.

There is a massive overlap between Tesla 'cult' members who hold Tesla shares and Cybertruck buyers - hence the 'best-selling EV truck' for the first few months. It sounds wild, but it's a thing. Many claim to have bought several cars already 'for the mission' (one has to explain me, how buying several cars in a span of 5 years helps to fight climate change). Once this pool was exhausted however, there is literally 0…

I actually think that the design is something people could get behind. People are painting and coating it with various cool color schemes, some of them look great. The problem is that the car itself just doesn't seem good enough and has far too many quality issues and problems. The windshield wiper itself is like a flagpole for all that is wrong with that car. Of course - who knows, I'm only repeating things I saw on social media in this case. In a german reddit post I saw about Tesla cars I read that Teslas are supposedly actually fairly good quality by now ... compared to the even worse german EVs which simply declare your car's software obsolete after 3 years and never update it again.

Re: Tesla is sitting on $200M worth of Cybertruck inventory

#23

Post by floren »

Nathanba wrote: post #22
TheAlchemist wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a massive overlap between Tesla 'cult' members who hold Tesla shares and Cybertruck buyers - hence the 'best-selling EV truck' for the first few months. It sounds wild, but it's a thing. Many claim to have bought several cars already 'for the mission' (one has to explain me, how buying several cars in a span of 5 years helps to fight climate change). Once this pool was exhausted however, there is literally 0…

I actually think that the design is something people could get behind. People are painting and coating it with various cool color schemes, some of them look great. The problem is that the car itself just doesn't seem good enough and has far too many quality issues and problems. The windshield wiper itself is like a flagpole for all that is wrong with that car. Of course - who knows, I'm only repeating things I saw on…

Hey, my model year 21 German EV is still getting updates... mainly because they keep having recalls which get fixed in software.

Re: Tesla is sitting on $200M worth of Cybertruck inventory

#24

Post by ggm »

duxup wrote: post #16
ggm wrote: post #12

If you consider it marketing, It did its job during a difficult period. If you need it to perform in the market, I think it's demonstrably failed, but you can look at other successful utility vehicle plays and say "thats so unhelpful to PR and sales messaging for this brand" -nobody respects the makers of UPS trucks except guys in UPS truck buying contexts and the tesla truck wasn't aimed at truck owners as such: it…

I don’t understand what “respect” means in this context…. Who cares if you won some imaginary respect if you’re not selling? UPS van sold lots… so that seems good.

Maybe respect was the wrong word? It's not like the brand power of "UPS truck" is boosting sales in any other segment.

The brand power of Cyber Truck was (in my mind) designed to boost sales across the board. While it wasn't available people bought other Tesla product, expecting a future upsell.

Thats all. UPS truck is a fine, economically justified, fit-for-purpose design. It gets all the (brand) respect it needs.

Re: Tesla is sitting on $200M worth of Cybertruck inventory

#25

Post by DFHippie »

TheAlchemist wrote: post #11
DFHippie wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's hoping the business world learns from this experience: trolls make terrible CEOs. It's one thing to be a narcissist or a sociopath. It's another to set out to sell a product while bending all your effort to taunting and dominating the customers who trusted you. People remember being betrayed. It turns out no one is an NPC.

I don't think it's that simple. Tesla sales were already slowing way before Musk turned full MAGA and he knew that. Competition showed up, states started cutting EV subisdes, especially in Europe etc. Tesla was never going to achieve the 50% / year growth that hey announced, and hit 20M car sales by 2030. I actually think that may be one reason he did turn to Trump. It's a last ditch attempt at trying to save his emp…

Perhaps. I don't see how he thought this was going to save his empire, though. Trump's crowd hates electric cars. Environmental concerns are to them what pork is to pious Jews and Muslims, beef to Hindus. Rolling coal is their sacrament. The refrain at Trump's rallies was "drill, baby, drill". And this has been the case -- not the refrain, but the attitude -- since the 60s. So how was Trump ever going to save "Tesler"? It makes as much sense as sacrificing your children to Moloch to save your family line: the only thing that is sure in that bargain is the death of your children.

Re: Tesla is sitting on $200M worth of Cybertruck inventory

#27

Post by acdha »

xedrac wrote: post #26
netsharc wrote: post #13

How much to bet that they're coming soon to a governmental agency near you: https://www.npr.org/2025/02/24/nx-s1-5305269/tesla-state-dep... It's saving costs, you see!

It would be peanuts compared to the waste they've found.

So far, they’re significantly negative on savings (the $140B they claim versus the $500B they’ve cost just at the IRS alone) and that’s taking the figures at face value when every sober review has found them wildly overstating the savings by doing things like taking credit for contracts closed during previous administrations, using the maximum possible amount on contracts which hadn’t spent anywhere near that much, or counting the same contract multiple times.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/03/us/politics/doge-musk-con...

Then you also have to factor in how much money they’re going to spend in lawsuits for all of the broken laws, not to mention the cost of paying people not to work for months while trying to bypass Congress and shut down legally mandated programs.

Re: Tesla is sitting on $200M worth of Cybertruck inventory

#29

Post by jmye »

atonse wrote: post #20
legitster wrote: post #6

Even setting aside the political stuff, this thing was 3 years late to the market. There are very few reasons you would want one of these over a Rivian outside of aesthetics, and it was a divisive aesthetic from the beginning.

It solved a bunch of problems absolutely nobody asked for, nor cared about. Bulletproof paneling? I mean you can’t make this stuff up. The sharp edges were idiotic. It was absolute hubris over good engineering. They should’ve done what ford did. Make it just a regular damn pick up truck, no need for bulletproof nonsense. And it would’ve sold like hot cakes.

> And it would’ve sold like hot cakes.

I still don’t think it would have. It’s useless for anyone who’s pretending they might haul stuff. It’s worse than useless off road. And it’s too small to appeal to the dudes who buy dualies to take their kids to elementary school.

Your first sentence is 100% dead on, except that it also completely failed to solve any of the problems people actually have (or, at least, problems they think they have).

Re: Tesla is sitting on $200M worth of Cybertruck inventory

#30

Post by xedrac »

acdha wrote: post #27
xedrac wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be peanuts compared to the waste they've found.

So far, they’re significantly negative on savings (the $140B they claim versus the $500B they’ve cost just at the IRS alone) and that’s taking the figures at face value when every sober review has found them wildly overstating the savings by doing things like taking credit for contracts closed during previous administrations, using the maximum possible amount on contracts which hadn’t spent anywhere near that much, o…

That $140B is a very concrete number with documentation to back up all 7279 line items in great detail. Nearly 1000x more than this $200M Cybertruck inventory. So yes, peanuts compared to the waste and fraud they've found. Your somewhat unrelated claim about the IRS is from a pay-walled source, and one that is historically rather biased against conservatism I might add. Are they claiming that the reduction in force reduced audits or something which somehow equates to $500B? I'd like to see equally detailed evidence for their claim.
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